All Rise...

Editor's Note

The Charge

Life is hard. Life is short. Life is painful. Life is rich. Life
is…Precious.

Opening Statement

"There's always something wrong with these tests. These tests paint a
picture of me with no brain. These tests paint a picture of me and my mother, my
whole family as less than dumb. Just ugly black grease, need to be wiped away,
find a job for."

Facts of the Case

Claireece "Precious" Jones is a 16-year-old African American
teenager whose life is about as miserable as it is humanly possible for one's
life to be. She lives with a mother (Mo'Nique) who constantly belittles and
abuses her. She has been raped by her father on a regular basis ever since she
was a young girl. Her first child by her father was born with Down Syndrome. Now
she's pregnant a second time. She's morbidly obese and can barely read or write.
She has no friends in school. Her life is a living hell in almost every way.
Now, she's in an alternative school—Each One Teach One—and a teacher
(Paula Patton, Swing Vote) and a social
worker (Mariah Carey, Glitter) are reaching
out to Precious in an attempt to help her turn her life around. Their efforts
are clearly beginning to enable Precious to pick up the pieces of her broken
life. Does Precious have a chance at breaking free, or will she be pulled back
into the never-ending cycle of horror that is her everyday life?

The Evidence

Just after my first viewing of Precious: Based on the Novel
"Push" by Sapphire (which we're just going to refer to as
Precious from here on out), I had somewhat conflicted feelings about the
movie. On the one hand, I had been intensely moved by the performances. On the
other hand, I had the nagging sense that the story was just a little too
contrived, the tragedy of this girl's life just a little too horrific in every
possible way to be believable. I wrestled back and forth with my feelings,
attempting to come to terms with whether or not I liked the film. I finally
decided that the virtues overwhelmed the problems I had with the movie. However,
when I learned that I would be viewing the film a second time to review the DVD,
I feared that a repeat viewing might further accentuate the flaws. But you know
what? That wasn't the case. Upon watching the film again, I found that
Precious moved me even more intensely this time than it did the first
time around.

I'd like to address the complaint that Precious is contrived and
emotionally exploitative, as it's a complaint that I had for a while. On the one
hand, the film certainly does seem to go out of its way to pile almost every
imaginable atrocity onto this poor girl's life. I can understand why this
bothers some viewers, despite the fact that there are undoubtedly real-life
scenarios very much this that truly do exist. But upon viewing the film a second
time, what struck me was not the forced nature of the premise but rather the
truthfulness of the execution. Are the tragedies of the film a little too neatly
organized? Maybe. After that, the artifice stops and reality sets in, as the
film does an admirable job of attempting to make Precious and her world as
genuine and believable as possible. Precious earns the right to explore
the emotionally charged issues that it raises.

The film works in large part due to the performances, which are solid at
worst and remarkable at best. Gabourey Sidibe's turn as the title character is a
strong anchor for the film, a heartbreaking and heartfelt performance that's so
dead-on it's almost painful to watch. Sidibe so effectively depicts the
soul-crushing personal hell that she is living in that it's genuinely disarming
when she gets the opportunity to demonstrate a bit of joy and warmth (as in her
colorful fantasy sequences or in some of the scenes she shares with her Each One
Teach One classmates). Part of the reason the performance works so well is due
to the fact that Sidibe and the filmmakers never attempt to make the character
particularly "cute" or "endearing" in a superficial way as
part of some cheap attempt to generate pity. There's never a moment where the
character feels less than real.

Good as Sidibe is, the most memorable performance in the film is delivered
by Mo'Nique, who rips into her part with a monstrous fury that's nothing short
of terrifying. The mother is a vile human being in almost every way, a genuine
monster whose behavior is well beyond appalling on a regular basis. What's
remarkable is not how effective Mo'Nique is at depicting the character's ugly
nature, but how effectively she manages to add human dimensions to a flat-out
irredeemable character as the film progresses. The intense display that occurs
during the final moments of the film is one of the most powerful pieces of
acting of recent years, a powerhouse finish to magnificent supporting role.

The rest of the primary cast members essentially offer essays in being warm
and appealing, with Paula Patton's turn as the teacher being the standout of the
bunch. Patton gently but firmly attempts to steer Precious' life in a positive
direction, dealing with frustrations and roadblocks along the way with a
level-headed calm. Mariah Carey is effectively naturalistic in her turn as a
social worker, while Lenny Kravitz generates a few smiles with his brief but
charming role as the male nurse who delivers Precious' second child.

Precious lands on DVD with a perfectly acceptable transfer,
accurately conveying the film's intentionally grimy, desaturated look. The
fantasy sequences have a soft warmth to them, while the "real-world"
scenes look about as aesthetically drab as possible. Detail is solid and the
many darker scenes benefit from strong shading. Audio is good as well, though
occasionally a bit of the dialogue sounds a bit muffled. The soundtrack is mixed
quite well, with the low-key sound design and score blending nicely with more
assertive song selections (Patti Labelle's "It Took a Long Time" is a
particularly stirring closing number).

The disc is given a pretty generous set of supplements, kicking off with an
engaging audio commentary with director Lee Daniels. The featurettes are brief
but informative: "From Push to Precious" (15 minutes) talks about
adapting the novel into a film, "A Precious Ensemble" (18 minutes)
discusses the cast, "Oprah and Tyler: A Project of Passion" (9
minutes) spends some time with the film's influential producers and "A
Conversation with Lee Daniels and Sapphire" (8 minutes) features a chat
between the novelist and the director. You also get Sidibe's audition, a deleted
scene, and very brief "Reflections on Precious" from a few cast
members.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

Even though I no longer have a problem with the supposedly contrived nature
of the premise, there are still moments in Precious that feel quite
contrived. Every now and then, one will encounter a fleeting moment that just
feels flat-out wrong. I agree with Appellate Judge Tom Becker that the scene in
which Precious imagines herself and her mother in the Italian film Two
Women is one such moment, as is a rape scene that intermittently cuts away
to lurid close-ups of greasy bacon and eggs in a frying pan. These are only
little moments, but due to the volatile nature of the material, they veer
dangerously close to seriously undermining the film's credibility. Fortunately,
they're few and far between enough so as not to be a terribly serious issue.

Closing Statement

Though it has some ungainly moments that don't quite work, Precious is
a deeply moving film that boasts some impressively truthful performances. Highly
recommended.